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There are some people who think that the theme in Hamlet, written by Shakespeare, is general and applies to our modern life. The truth is that there are a lot of differences between our modern world and Hamlet's world. Hamlet does not apply to our modern life. This is because is Shakespeare's time, women seem to be weak and easy to control, revenge appears to be in every family and Shakespeare makes it clear that there are a lot of problems within the royal families and they seem very unstable.
One difference between our modern life and Hamlet's life, are the women, In the story Hamlet is describing her mother: "By what it fed on; and yet, within a month-Let me not think on't! Frailty, thy name is woman! " (1224) This lets us know that no one could have married another man within 2 months of being widowed, but a woman.
It seems that women are just a symbol in the story because they don't play a very important role at all.
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"Will you ha' the truth an't? If this had not been a gentlewoman, she should have been buried out o' Christian burial.
" (1299) This shows that women were often not buried as christians. Shakespeare also puts Ophelia as a weak person. She dies because of Polonius' death, and that was a way to evade all that suffering. In Hamlet, women appear as beings that represent love and most of the time men die 2 because of that love. In our modern life, we see women and men equally capable; However, women in Hamlet show weaknesses and are referred as inferior beings that work as by-standards.
A second reason why Hamlet is not universal is because Shakespeare based Hamlet on revenge.
In our modern world we can still avenge a loved one, but usually do not do it. It is rare that somebody kills their father or uncle. In Hamlet, Laertes, Hamlet's father's ghost, Ophelia, and Hamlet himself wants to avenge a loved one. "I am satisfied in nature, whose motive in this case should stir me most to my revenge. " (1311) This is said by Laertes when he fights with Hamlet. Both Laertes and Hamlet want to avenge their father. Ophelia also feels the necesity to avenge her father. It does not matter to Ophelia that Hamlet is a very close friend, because she feels she has to avenge her father.
In the confusion of what to do, she decides death is a better choice. Everyone who wanted to avenge a loved one died. When someone dies is like erasing all those sins comitted and forgiving that person. Killing a person is like erasing the victim's sins and putting them on the killer. In Hamlet, every single person who wanted to get revenge died and, in addition of getting their revenge, they also got their sins taken away. Modern life is different because revenge is the same as killing somebody, and when that happens there is no one that will take all those errors and make them right.
The third reason why Hamlet does not apply to our modern life is because 3 of weakness in the royal family. It seems that the territory Hamlet's family owns is very unstable thanks to the personal problems they have. Imagine a territory owned by a uncle who killed his brother, a son that wants to kill his uncle, a mother who marries her husband's brother. After all that, the queen, king, and the son die. In our modern life if something is wrong with our government, something is done to fix it. Power appears to be very important and killing just to get it is common.
The royal family reflects on the people. If there is a war, Hamlet's family will loose their territory. Hamlet is blinded by revenge and he does not care what happens to his people. He only cares, and focuses on revenge. Today we see weakness as a weakness and nobody can change that. The important thing in our government is that it has to have no weaknesses at all. For this reason Hamlet does not apply to our modern life. In conclusion, Hamlet does not relate to our modern life for many reasons. The truth is that Hamlet's theme is very different from ours.
Revenge is not something common in our modern life. Revenge is an important thing in Hamlet. Women appear as symbols that represent weakness. In our modern world, women are as good as men and they are not weak at all. With att these weaknesses, the whole kingdom appears to be weak. In the other hand we, in our modern life, does not accept weaknesses in anything. We see weakness as a bad thing. Hamlet may represent or apply to Shakespeare's time, but now Hamlet seems life a good story with a lot of themes and symbols but that is it.
How do the themes of Hamlet relate to modern life?. (2016, Jun 02). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/themes-hamlet-relate-modern-life-2407-new-essay
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